1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to VLSI semiconductor devices and, particularly, relates to the problem of line-to-line capacitance and cross talk noise in semiconductor devices in ultra-high density circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
The manufacturing process of integrated circuits (ICs) involves the fabrication of numerous semiconductor devices, such as insulated gate field effect transistors on a single substrate. In order to have increased integration density and improved device performance, for instance, with respect to signal processing time and power consumption, feature sizes of the semiconductor devices are steadily decreasing. Decreasing feature sizes provide a variety of advantages, such as high package density and small rise and fall times during switching of the transistors due to reduced channel length. However, these advantages may be offset by certain disadvantages such as increased resistances of interconnects and higher coupling capacitances between adjacent lines when feature sizes are further decreased. Moreover, the increased resistance and/or the increase in capacitive coupling also slow the speed at which electrical signals propagate along the interconnects. This may be generally referred to as interconnect delay.
Generally, interconnect delay begins to dominate overall device delay in devices with feature sizes, e.g., gate lengths, on the order of 0.18 xcexcm, so that device features of 0.18 xcexcm and smaller will result in a deteriorated device performance, thereby restricting, for example, the clock frequency of CPUs. In modern ultra-high density circuits, not only interconnect delay is an important issue, but also formation of local interconnects, i.e., connections which provide for contact to the drain and source regions of a field effect transistor. The design rules in modern integrated circuits, for example, in ultra-high density CMOS circuits, require small distances between the gate electrode and the local interconnects in the range of 10-250 nm. These distances are even smaller when slight misalignments occur in the formation of the openings for the respective local interconnects.
For the sake of clarity, a typical prior art process flow will be described with reference to FIGS. 1a and 1b in order to detail some of the problems involved with the formation of local interconnects in modern integrated circuits. As the skilled person will easily appreciate, the figures depicting the prior art processing are merely of schematic nature, and transition and boundaries illustrated as sharp lines may not be imparted as sharp transitions in a real device. Furthermore, the description of the typical prior art process flow refers to standard manufacturing procedures without specifying typical parameter values used for these procedures, since the individual processing steps may be accordingly adapted to meet specific design requirements.
FIG. 1a shows a schematic cross-sectional view of a field effect transistor device at a specific manufacturing stage. In a semiconductor substrate 1, shallow trans-isolations 2 define a transistor region. A gate electrode 4 is formed over a substrate 1 and isolated therefrom by a gate insulation layer 3. Adjacent to the gate insulation layer 3, lightly doped regions 5 are formed. As the skilled person will readily appreciate, the gate electrode 4 may be formed by DUV (deep ultraviolet) mask technology and, thereafter, the lightly doped regions 5 are formed by ion implantation.
FIG. 1b schematically shows a cross-sectional view of the field effect transistor in a more advanced manufacturing stage. Adjacent to the sidewalls of the gate electrode 4, sidewall spacers 7 are formed and extend along a width dimension of the transistor, which is defined as the direction perpendicular to the drawing plane of FIG 1b. The lateral dimension of the gate electrode 4, on the other hand, is generally referred to as the length dimension. For example, the width of the gate electrode 4, i.e., the distance between the sidewall spacers 7 depicted in FIG. 1b, is generally referred to as the gate length of the transistor. Furthermore, drain and source regions 6 are formed. Formation of the sidewall spacers 7 may be performed by deposition of a silicon dioxide or a silicon nitride or a silicon oxynitride layer and subsequent anisotropic etch. The dielectric constant xe2x80x9ckxe2x80x9d of these materials typically ranges from 3.9-6, depending on the type of deposition process used. After formation of the sidewall spacers 7, the highly doped source and drain regions 6 are formed by means of ion implantation and rapid thermal annealing as is well known to the skilled person.
FIG. 1c shows a schematic cross-sectional view of the transistor device in a further advanced manufacturing stage. An interlayer of dielectric material 8 is formed over the structure and comprises openings 9 which at least partially expose the surface of the drain and source region, respectively. A typical process flow for forming the openings 9 and the interlayer 8, generally referred to as Local Intercontact (LI) process sequence, typically includes the following steps. First, the interlayer of dielectric material (ILD) 8 is deposited by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) from TEOS. Next, the surface of the ILD 8 is planarized by performing a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process. Thereafter, the openings 9, in form of vias or lines, are formed by using standard masking and etch techniques. As can be seen in FIG. 1c, in general, minor misalignments occur during the formation of the openings 9, so that, usually, the distances of the openings 9 to the gate electrode 4 are not exactly identical.
FIG. 1d schematically shows the transistor device of FIG. 1c with the openings 9 filled with a metal, such as tungsten, so as to provide electrical contact to the drain and source regions 6. Moreover, a further CMP process has been performed to level the surface of the ILD 8 and the metal in the openings 9. As the skilled person will appreciate, a thin barrier layer (not shown) may be deposited prior to filling the openings 9 with the metal.
The distances between the gate electrode 4 and the metal in the openings 9 is in the range of 10-250 nm in modern ultra-high density semiconductor circuits. This distance may even be smaller depending on the magnitude of any misalignment occurring during the formation of the openings 9. The parasitic capacitance formed between the metal and the gate electrode is inversely proportional to the distance between the metal and the gate electrode and, thus, the time constant for switching the transistor device increases as the distance between the metal and the gate electrode decreases. Moreover, cross talk noise between the drain and source regions and the gate electrode also increases with a decreasing distance. As a consequence, in ultra-high density semiconductor circuits, the advantages gained by steadily decreasing the transistor length, i.e., the gate length, are, at least partially, nullified by the decreasing distance between source and drain lines and the gate electrode, thereby resulting in an increased parasitic capacitance and cross talk noise therebetween.
In view of the above, there exists a need for an improved field effect transistor device having a lower capacitance between its drain and source region and the gate electrode so as to improve device performance of ultra-high density semiconductor circuits.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a field effect transistor device in an integrated circuit manufactured on a substrate, comprising a gate electrode having opposing sidewalls extending along a width direction of the transistor, the gate electrode being formed over a substrate and separated therefrom by a gate insulation layer, a drain line at least partially formed over a drain region, the drain line electrically connecting to the drain region, and a source line at least partially formed over a source region, the source line electrically connecting to the source region, the drain line and the source line being electrically insulated and spaced apart from the gate electrode by a sidewall spacer comprised of a material having a dielectric constant that is 3.5 or less.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a field effect transistor device in an integrated circuit manufactured on a substrate, comprising a gate electrode having opposing sidewalls extending along a width direction of the transistor, the gate electrode being formed over a substrate and separated therefrom by a gate insulation layer, a drain line at least partially formed over a drain region, the drain line electrically connecting to the drain region, a source line at least partially formed over a source region, the source line electrically connecting to the source region, the drain line and the source line being electrically insulated and spaced apart from the gate electrode by a sidewall spacer, wherein a ratio of a distance between the drain line and the gate electrode and the dielectric constant of the sidewall spacer, and a ratio of a distance between the source line and the gate electrode and the dielectric constant of the sidewall spacer are equal or less than 0.35 nmxe2x88x921.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a field effect transistor, comprising the steps of providing a substrate having a surface, forming an active region in the substrate, forming a gate electrode over the substrate, the gate electrode being electrically insulated from the substrate by a gate insulation layer, forming dielectric sidewall spacers adjacent the gate electrode and extending along the gate electrode in a width direction of the transistor, the sidewall spacers being comprised of a material having a dielectric constant that is 3.5 or less, forming a drain and a source region in the active region adjacent the gate electrode, depositing an insulating layer over the substrate, forming openings at least partially over the drain and source region, respectively, filling the openings with an electrically conductive material so as to form a drain line and a source line, wherein the sidewall spacers assist in electrically isolating and spatially separating the gate electrode from the drain line and the source line.
Since the capacitance between the drain region or the source region and the gate electrode is dependent on the dielectric constant xe2x80x9ckxe2x80x9d of the sidewall spacer material and is inversely proportional to the spacing of the drain line or the source line and the gate electrode, the increase of the capacitance by reducing said distance in ultra-high density integrated circuits can effectively be compensated by forming the sidewall spacers on the basis of a low k material. Contrary to prior art devices containing sidewall spacers made of silicon oxide, silicon nitride or silicon oxynitride, having a dielectric constant k ranging from 3.9-6, the present invention provides field effect transistors having sidewall spacers formed of a material with a dielectric constant in the range of 3.5 to less than 1.3. Accordingly, the present invention allows a further down-scaling of the transistor devices, thereby avoiding a deteriorated device performance caused by increased gate-to-source and/or gate-to-drain capacitance and cross talk noise.